Thursday, September 25, 2014

150 Years Ago: CSS Florida
Makes Her Last Capture At Sea

On September 26, 1864, the Confederate
raider CSS Florida, then under the command of her
second captain, Charles M. Morris, made her 37th and final
capture: the bark Mandamis. She was a commercial vessel out of
Baltimore that was returning “in ballast” because of the
difficulty in finding shippers who wanted to risk their cargo on
American flag vessels – vessels which, like Mandamis, were
the prey for CSS Florida and other Rebel Raiders
on the High Seas.

After setting the bark afire, Morris
made for Bahia to take on coal and provisions. He did not know that
no fewer than 24 Union warships were after him – one of which, the
USS Ticonderoga, was assited in that hunt by one of the CSS
Florida's own men: A. L. Drayton. The sailor had been
captured when the fishing schooner Archer, which when
captured by the CSS Florida had been pressed into
service to do some raiding of her own off the New England coast. Rather than suffer imprisonment, Drayton piloted the Union warship throughout the chase, but always
arrived at foreign ports of call just a week or so after the raider.
Another of the hunters, however, USS Wachusett, was
more timely in her search – catching up with and capturing the CSS
Florida on October 7...but that is another story....

The Confederate commerce raiders play a
key role in GMT's strategic naval game of the Civil War, Rebel
Raiders on the High Seas. For more on the game visit the GMT website
on the game at:

Friday, September 12, 2014

150 Years Ago: A Rebel Blockade Runner's Last Run

Few Confederate ships ran the blockade more often than the Advance. The fast, Scottish-built 900-ton sidewheeler made more than 20 voyages - paying back her owners many times over as she brought in not only badly needed war supplies but also highly sought after luxuries. Named in honor of North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance, the sleek double-stack vessel originally designer as a fast passenger liner eluded capture over 40 times as she zipped in and out of Wilmington and other ports in the Tar Heel State. Unfortunately, the 41st Union warship she encountered was one of the fastest ships in the Union navy: the USS Santiago de Cuba - which ended the blockade runner's storied 15-month career on the night of September 10, 1864.

The Advance, however, was not sunk by the USS Santiago de Cuba when the Yankee vessel caught up with her in Cape Fear Inlet; she was instead taken as a prize to New York and then selected for service by the Navy. Even with a 20-pounder rifled gun and four 24-pound howitzers aboard the now rechristened USS Advance could still make 12 knots, which made her suitable for service in tightening the blockade around the very ports she had been running in and out of under the Rebel flag. Her capture, however, was a severe blow to Confederate captains, fewer and fewer of whom risked going out where even the Advance had been unable to escape.

Although she never chased down any of her fellow blockade runners, as USS Advance the vessel did see action in the battle for Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear River that Christmas. Under the command of Lt. Cmdr. John Upshur she exchanged fire with the fort's Half-Moon Battery, reportedly silencing its 8-inch gun, then came closer inshore to help rescue and tow away the gunboat USS Osceola, Upshur's vessel finished out the war as a dispatch and supply ship, and after war's end was renamed USS Frolic and, with Upshur still in command, was sent to the European Squadron. The vessel was finally decomissioned in 1877 and sold to a private owner in Virginia in 1883.

AsCSN Card 67, CSS Advance is one of the many blockade runners that appear in the strategic Civil War naval game, Rebel Raiders on the High Seas. Successfully running the blockade is vital for Confederate victory in the game, as it was in the war. Stopping such ships is equally vital for the North, which in attempting to do so makes use of such ships as the gunboat USS Osceola, which also appears in the game as USN Card 9 and which, ironically, as noted above, was saved by Advance when that former blockade runner was in Union service.

About Me

Mark G. McLaughlin is a Connecticut-based freelance journalist and game designer with over 30 years of experience as a ghostwriter and columnist. An author whose first published book was Battles of the American Civil War, Mark continues to be enthralled by history, wargames, and science fiction.